Do you ever worry?
Isn’t that like asking if you breathe?
We all worry, at different levels and in different ways.
We worry about our health sometimes, about our children, about our jobs, how we are going to pay the bills, climate change, about a test we have to take, whether we are feeding our families good food, even whether our faith and spiritual practice is in the right place.
And because we are special this way, we also worry about worrying!
Do any of you do that? Worry that you worry too much!
And then Jesus comes along and drops the hammer on worrying!
I mean really Jesus!
But I get it!
Jesus is explaining Kingdom values and he wants to make sure we see the big picture, so Jesus intensifies everything! He turn up the volume! Uses a highlighter! Spotlights it! It’s in bold type, with italics, plus underlined.
He says. if you are struggling with life and you think the struggle sucks, remember, this process is making you blessed, making you holy!
And if you think that not having killed anyone gets you off the hook breaking the commandment not to murder anyone, think again, because if you have called someone an idiot, say today, perhaps in this room, then you are ready for the pit of despair, with lava!
And if you think that not having committed adultery, like some other people we know, makes you safe from living in the fiery furnace, but you have looked lustfully at anyone on Game of Thrones or anywhere else, you are, and let me make this completely clear, toast!
We are to keep our promises. We are to love everyone, even our enemies. We are to give generously, giving not until hurts, but until it thrills. And we are to do so in a way that God knows what we are up to and God approves, but other people, not so much.
We are to be for this world salty, spicy, bright lights, changing this world into God’s Kingdom and making it amazing!
And while at it, we aren’t to worry about how it will all come together, where the resources will come from, even whether we have what we need inside of us to do it! We are to just do it!
We are to do what we have been called to do and not look back.
We are not to worry about what we have and if we have enough. Instead we are to focus on using the resources entrusted to our care to make the Kingdom of God flourish, in just the same way as God uses his own resources to make the birds chirp and the flowers glow and his people amazing?
So, don’t worry, be happy.
But…
We complain, Lord, it’s so hard!!!!
And…
Lord, I don’t know how not to worry?
Subaru has an advertisement on TV that shows parents worrying as their teenagers drive their cars. They sit and wait and then are so relived when the teenager comes home safe.
And a study I saw the other day says that worrying about your kids is a lifelong process. Even when they are adults and have children of their own, we worry.
And why wouldn’t we!
Just last week a 36-year-old mother of three children was walking along the street here in town at 11:00pm at night and was struck from behind by a dark colored pickup truck that police estimate was going 50 mph in 30 mph zone. They found her dead at 7:00am the following morning.
How can you not worry!
But that is not exactly what Jesus meant! He wasn’t asking you not to be concerned for those you love. Because he was concerned for those he loved. That’s exactly why he was there!
Jesus says in John’s gospel, “That God loved the world so much that he sent his only son, so that anyone who believed in him might not perish, but have eternal life.
God was worried about his children.
What we are not to worry about is being God’s children, acting like God’s children, doing what God’s children are supposed to do!
We are to get busy being the Kingdom, living like Kingdom people, practicing Kingdom values, and…
God will supply what we need to make it happen!
Fill the flood buckets.
Build a garden in Namibia.
Invite people to celebrate the resurrection.
Feed the children.
Open the doors of the church and let people in, just as we are headed out into the world to make sure we make the difference God intended us to make in this world.
Walking for Habitat, walking and running for the Ronald Macdonald House, going to New Bern North Carolina to rehab houses, doing it all…
And not worrying one bit! Because God will provide what you need.
It is just as Jesus said, “But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.”
Don’t worry, get busy!
Amen.
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